San Antonio daily light. [volume] (San Antonio, Tex.) 1886-1907, 1887-03-03

finding himself momentarily unob-
served, Dick swoOped round on his
blades, and, executing a skilful retro
grade movement, glided away under the
shadow of the trees, unperceiyed alike
by host, sisters, friends.
/ Then away-away over the classy
surface, swift as arrow from the bow,
3 bending, swaying, now right, now left,
as the stream meandered in and out, till
| at length Dick paused, momentarily
out of breath, and, by way of variety,
began cutting hieroglyphic Fights,
threes, noughts, in the centre of the
I ice.
IL was pretty, too, from here to watch
I the effect of the freight scene beyond,
with the mufiled figures in the dark
apparel skimming the lake like gigantic
| birds, the blazing braZiers casting high
bright tongues OF living flame, and
shedding lurid rosy glow on the MINI
ic snow mountains piled around.
Such the prospect on the one hand,
whilst on the other all was dark, mys-
FERROUS and drear; only ever and again
betwiXt the interstices of the trees, the
solitary lamp in the gardeners cottage
twinkled frOstily like fallen star.
Well he'd mind to wish old Daw-
kins the compliments of the season; so
Dick veered round, bent his head to
the breeze, in order to escape some low
hanging branches of the naked alders,
which in summer interlaced their leafy
arms over this portion of the stream,
then onward, onward, through the
clear cold night, cleaving space like
some winged thing.
Until
Never after could he succeed in accu-
Was 1t that he tripped over some Jag
ged unseen stone embedded in the icep
that his skates became suddenly en-
tangled in some fallen twigs? or, that
in any case, without preliminary
sign or symptom, without the vaguest
notion that his equilibrium was en-
dangered, Dick pitched head foremost
heavily to earth, coming down with
monstrous crash which starred the ice
for yards around, and shivered the froz-
en- surface Immediately beneath his
weight.
It rent, it Glove, it gaped asunder, the
jagged edges springing wide like the
two ends of ribbon sundered sharply
when tension is extreme, and into the
dark yawning chasm thus exposed,
head foremost Dick was plunged.
Widely, vainly, his iron-shod feet
struck out fiercely right and left; he
but succeeded in charging the hideous
aperture, and greedily the prisoned
waters sucked in their unexpected
prey.
Was it fancy, or even as he fell, did a
sharp, smothered human cry reach his
ear from the nearest bankp The voice
of fellow-creature, telling of sympa-
thy and commiseration at that moment
of supremeSt peril, when in the heyday
of health and strength brave man re-
Allies he is face to face, nay, surely in
the very jaws of remorseless Death
himself.
Just then Dick might not pause to
ponder; he was graphing with his cru
ell foe, fiercely, wildly, as those only
struggle who recognize that the issue is
one of life or death; that no interme-
date course is practicable, that the die
is cast, and few brief moments must
irrevocably decide the fate of the
writhing, terrified human soul, thus
suddenly plunged up to the lips in the
seething whirlpool of despair.
Ali it was awful-awful. He was
sensible of the ice-cold waters closing
above his head, whilst lower, lower, he
felt himself downward drawn as though
into a bottomless abyss, a freezing vor-
tex, from which escape there could be
nonel
His very soul turned sick and numb,
whilst physically he grew positively
nerveless from despair; for, after those
first few moments of purpOseless plung-
ing beneath Overhanging cruel lodges,
which seemed to frOwn blackly at his
impotence, Dick vaguely realized the
utter futility of further efforts, even as
ha ct, oil &C., hop ri
now left, with the blind instinct of
self-preservation strong in every hu-
man breast; for the treacherous ice
gave way beneath his clutch, and the
additional impetus thus lent the waters,
seemed but the more effectually to
overwhelm their puny victim.
Ali it was terrible, this rendering up
of precious life whilst one was young
and strong, and brave and bold. The
utter impossibility of resigning himself
to the inevitable, for one moment pos
sessed Dick with the absolute force of
frenzy; let the old, the ailing, the used
up die-nOt him-not him in the full
strength and glory of his manhood, the
fragrant flower of his youth and perfect
health. He could not, would not yield
up his breath before the lifelong fray
was more than well commenced; before
he had lived, and loved, and suffered to
the extent of one 1.-THE of the tether
Nature had allotted to him as his indi-
vidual share of earthly experience.
But now consciousness suddenly be-
came dim and haZy, cloudy, indefinable;
earth and heaven, the past and present,
the possible future, all became alike in
volved in vague cold mist defying an
alyZation. 1t seemed to Dick he was
floating on his back on the surface of
the waters with his face upturned
towards the clear, pale, pitiless sky;
that death-cold hand closed his tired
lids; that an icy weight as of an up
rooted mountain had settled upon his
breast shilling pulsation and respira-
ton, forbidding his f1uttering heart to
beat, the hfe-stream to culver longer
through his numbing veins. Then all
was peace and calm; measureless
tranquility became his portion; the
brief agony of resistance over, Dick felt
no desire to struggle longer against his
doom.
Surely a hundred years at the very
least must have elapsed before, on re-
opening his eyes, Dick became dimly
conscious of laying on bed of snow,
with blankets piled above him, with
two rough-faced men bending over him,
whilst a horny-hand pressed between
his lips the mouth of bottle contain
ing lit seemed more than probable) the
famous elixir of life itself, for, certes,
that was none other than the liquid life
stream it distilled through his every
vein.
|. "Ah! II fancied all was over; that
II was drowned!' he murmured faint
", even as he reclosed his weary eyes.